


nokia, with thanks

by Evedawalrus



Series: Minimegs Week 2019 [5]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Merformers, Mermaids, Minimegs Week 2019, my first multi-chapter fic....
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-03 19:13:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20271838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evedawalrus/pseuds/Evedawalrus
Summary: Minimus Ambus, an overworked office employee, decides to go on (read: is forced on by his overenthusiastic friends) a beach vacation. What he doesn't know is that there's a shark in these waters...





	1. An Unwanted Vacation

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is posted for day 5 of Minimegs Week, for the prompt: Work/Transformation! 
> 
> I've been slowly working on this fic since March and I'm so excited to finally be putting it out here! This will be a three-chapter update, to align with the last three days of Minimegs Week! 
> 
> (also since this is my first longfic, y'all better hold me to my promise that i'll finish it)

Minimus hated his coworkers; he really did. 

The question of why could be easily answered by the fact that they had abandoned him on the side of the road after rummaging through all of his luggage and stealing his things. 

Tailgate waved goodbye from the open window of the van as it drove away. “Have fun!!!” She leaned her torso out to make sure he could see her enthusiastic waving and nearly fell out, but was hauled back in by a pair of hands with purple nails. 

Minimus felt twitchy knowing they weren’t wearing seatbelts. Though, there wasn’t much he could do about that now, could he. With a heavy sigh, he turned about to sweep his gaze over the steep incline heading down to the beach. 

There seemed nothing exceptional about the beach – it was clean, simply due to it being closed to the public, but he didn't feel there was anything of note. White sand and steady crashing waves were what he expected from a vacation spot. 

There, in the lonely stretch of sand below, sat a small cottage on the beach. It was raised up a bit on stilts, and had a small porch with a set of stairs leading up to it. Minimus supposed it looked clean enough. He briefly wondered how his coworkers were able to afford renting a beach house like this for over a month – perhaps the relative isolation had something to do with it. His mind back on the subject of his damned friends, he mentally scolded them for doing something so extreme such as this in the first place. Sure, he tended to work a little harder than necessary from time to time, but it was only because he enjoyed it!

When the crew of office workers had pushed him to leave work early (well, early for him – it was technically after normal staff hours) and go with them to “Visages,” he had grudgingly consented, even though he had a project due next week which he _ could _ have used that valuable time on. What he objected to, however, was when they staged an “intervention” and demanded that he take a vacation. A vacation! As Minimus protested, they insisted that he needed a break, using ridiculous words Minimus was sure they had made up like “chillax” and “unwind.” 

He had argued that he couldn’t afford to just leave work, but they fought back by citing the excess of vacation days he had unknowingly built up over several years. They had _ documentation _. It was utterly ridiculous. Upon their threats to actually call a doctor to put him on medical leave, Minimus had finally relented. He had sent an email to his superior requesting time off – and secretly hoping he would be denied – but unfortunately, Thunderclash was very understanding and accommodating. 

Drat. 

The next day, he found himself stuffed into a van alongside all his coworkers, on his way to the beach. He had tried giving them all the silent treatment to accurately show his displeasure with this, but after half an hour of Rung quietly making conversation, Minimus couldn’t bear disrespecting his kindest friend. Rung always made sure not to bring his work into his personal life, but he was especially good at seeing right through Minimus’s walls. 

“I hate to be blunt, but you do need a break, Minimus.” Rung placed a hand on Minimus’s forearm, then retracted it after he stiffened. Minimus tried to look cross, but his friend’s caring expression made that quite difficult. He settled for a huff.

“You know how I feel about having- having _ fun _.” 

“Yes, I do – and I know your way of having fun is much different from the rest of us. But Minimus, there’s a difference between enjoying your work and overworking yourself. You need to get away from that environment, even for just a while.”

Minimus stayed stubbornly silent. Perhaps there was an inkling of truth to Rung’s words, but he wasn’t about to admit that. He stared out the window at the tall grasses whipping by and tried not to think of the long month ahead of him. After a few minutes, he felt something drop onto his lap. Glancing down, he saw a sizeable book titled _ The National Audubon Society Field Guide To Seashells. _His eyes widened, and he looked up at Rung. 

The bespectacled man smiled softly at him and said, “I thought you could try a new hobby while you’re out there.” 

Minimus blinked. He didn’t quite return the smile, but his expression softened a bit. “Thank you, Rung.” 

A few hours and many episodes of _ My Several Siblings And I _ later, they had arrived. Minimus had unloaded his luggage, upon which his so-called “friends” had then opened every suitcase and stolen three folders of paperwork, his laptop, his smartphone, and his dictionary. Minimus had attempted to stop them, but Whirl simply picked him up and held him in the air until they were done. As everyone else piled into the van once more, Nautica placed a Nokia phone in his hands with an apologetic look.

“I get that you’re probably steamed, but this is for the best! Just use this if you need to call us for anything, okay?” 

Minimus sighed, realizing that complaining wasn’t going to help much at this stage. He grudgingly accepted the phone, and Nautica smiled. With a farewell, she hopped in the car and they all drove off, leaving Minimus completely alone. 

With a sigh, he began hauling his things down to the lonely cottage on the beach. The door opened with a creak, and light flooded into the slightly dusty interior. Minimus surveyed the room with his hands on his hips, and hummed to himself. “At least I have one thing to do…” 

As the door swung shut behind him, there was a splash some distance past the waves that rolled onto the beach. A seagull swung low, searching the water for the shimmer of scales its eye had caught. 

Suddenly, a hand burst out of the water, grabbing the bird’s leg. The bird squawked, pecking at the slick fingers hard enough for the hand to flinch and release it. It screeched like a banshee as it flew away. 

The thing in the water grumbled. Maybe next time.


	2. An Unknown Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minimus settles into his new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 of Minimegs Week! I suppose this whole fic fits with the prompt of AU/FU... Anyways, chapter 3 will be out tomorrow!

The house was dark enough that Minimus first had to open the window blinds before he could find any of the lamps scattered across the cozy living room. The windows themselves were a bit hard to open, but with a hard shove they relented, letting in the calls of seabirds from outside. The cottage was fairly small, holding a living room, a kitchenette tucked into one corner, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. All the rooms were relatively clean, if a bit musty – it was clear that no one had been here for a good while. However, there were odd trinkets covering most of the surfaces; little knick-knacks such as starfish, sand dollars, tiny ships in bottles, and fake signs made out of fake driftwood that said “It’s five o’clock somewhere!” Minimus scoffed at that decoration in particular. Something about it was profoundly irritating.

However, the most egregious decoration in the cottage was one of those gaudy plastic fish stuck on a fake plaque. Minimus hated those things. They were quite literally right next to the sea, why couldn’t they have simply put up an actual fish? Taking it off the wall, he frowned at the fish’s glassy eyes. He would definitely have to stow this ugly thing away somewhere, but before he did that… he glanced about the empty room. Then he pressed the button next to the fish’s mouth. 

_ “TAKE ME TO THE RIVER,” _ the plastic abomination sang as its head flopped against the plaque. “ _ TOSS ME IN THE WATER!” _

Minimus flinched, hurriedly pressing the button again in an effort to get it to shut up. Unfortunately, the action only started the fish’s song over again. After a bit of panicking, he emptied the device of its batteries, and the voice of the fish droned off in a very unsettling way. After putting the batteries back in to ensure he wouldn’t lose them, he stowed the abomination in one of the cabinets he knew he would not be using. 

“Well,” Minimus surveyed the rest of the cottage and rolled up his sleeves. “Let’s see what we can do.”

The house was clean from top to bottom by sunset. Minimus had dusted the shelves, swept the floor and porch, scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom, shaken out the blankets, cleared out the refrigerator, put the food and drink he had brought from home away, checked the batteries in the fire alarm, changed the linens on the beds, hung up his clothes, and opened every window. Satisfied with his work, he then took a shower and made his dinner. 

He started to eat his sandwich at the small table, but as some salty air flowed in through the window, Minimus found himself tempted into taking his food outside to sit on the porch. Feet hanging off the windblown wooden porch, facing the moonlit sea, Minimus was surprised to realize that he felt- oh, what was the word? ...Relaxed? Yes, he was almost relaxed. The contentment that rolled over him at having cleaned the cottage so thoroughly mixed with the soothing sound of the steadily crashing waves to smooth out his fraught nerves. The air was clean and cool, and the moon shone bright over the shore. This was… nice. 

Unfortunately, this peaceful mood washed away as quickly as the water rushing back from the beach, and Minimus suddenly felt very alone. While there was a small town nearby, it was far away enough that he couldn't see a single light from it. The beach stretched out on each side, disappointingly empty. His shoulders sagged, air rushing out of him in one sweeping sigh; once again, Minimus did not know what to do with himself. 

Without another look to the sea, he gathered up his plate and went inside, washing the dishes, putting them away, brushing his teeth, and slipping under the covers of his bed. He gazed at the soft moonlight that filtered through the window for a moment, then drew the curtains shut before he fell asleep trying to push down the loneliness that knocked about in his chest. 

He never noticed the eyes that watched him from far out in the water. They studied him curiously, tracked him as he went back inside, and blinked when the light from his bedroom turned off. With barely a sound, the shining red eyes disappeared below the surface.

* * *

The next few days passed by agonizingly slow. Minimus found a book of crosswords he had packed that his friends had thankfully deemed unrelated to work. The puzzles held his attention for a while, but even the satisfaction of completing half of the book wore off rather quickly. He sat outside for an hour or so, watching sandpipers run in and out with the tide. Their constant movement was eye catching, but not very engaging, so he decided to take a walk down the beach. 

The lone and level sands stretched far away. Minimus sighed – but then, something glittering washed up on a wave. Picking it up, he saw it was one half of an oyster shell, stripped of the creature that had once lived inside and left shiny by the buffeting water. It was then that Minimus was struck with an idea. 

He strode quickly back to the cottage and found the book Rung had gifted him sitting on the counter. “_ The National Audubon Society Field Guide To Seashells, _” he murmured. “Well, I suppose there’s nothing exactly better for me to do.”

And so that was how Minimus spent the next four days. He went into town only twice; once to pick up groceries from a small market that surprised Minimus with the freshness of their vegetables. He had a nice salad that night, once again eaten out under the stars. The rest of his time was spent scouring the beaches for all sorts of shells. He collected scotch bonnets, lettered olive shells, shark eyes, augers, scallops, dozens of tiny mud snail shells, and even two large knobbed whelks – if nothing else could be said about Minimus, he was a meticulous beachcomber. A few times when he was wading into the calm water, usually around sunset, Minimus would glimpse movement out in the waves. Yet when he squinted against the sun, he could never see anything. Perhaps there had been a flash of grey, somewhere out in the foam thrown up by the crashing waves; the slap of a tailfin upon the water. Perhaps not. 

In the evenings, he organized his shells by shape or color or the phylogeny of the creatures they once belonged to; once this was done, he went back inside to fetch his violin. Not many people knew Minimus played. He didn’t really like to advertise the fact – more enjoying the music he made in private. He loved music, any kind; but he had picked up the violin when he was young, and kept practicing even when he was sick of the instrument purely as a way to distinguish himself from his brother. Dominus never played an instrument. Minimus always felt a stab of guilt for taking pride in that. 

He played for an hour or so, gazing out at the sea and playing a slow, calming tune. The sound mixed well with the quiet rushing of the waves, and eventually, the tension in his shoulders began to melt away. Perhaps he hummed along with the violin at some points, but no one needed to know that. 

After Minimus eventually went to bed, something emerged from the steadily lapping waves. It had seen the light from the bedroom go dark, and hesitantly dragged itself further onto the beach. It approached the cabin, and stopped at the shells laid out in the sand, neatly classified in rows. An hour later, the figure returned to the water.

The next morning, Minimus wandered outside and froze. 

His collection of seashells had been rearranged. He knew this because he had put the scallops on the right side, but now they were bunched together at the bottom. His organization had been utterly ruined by some vandals – probably local teens with nothing better to do in the early hours. 

Minimus huffed. “Wonderful, now I have to put the mud snails back next to the scotch bonnets-” But then something gave him pause. Taking out the field guide, Minimus glanced over his collection. His eyes widened as he realized that whoever had done this had not messed up his meticulous organization of sea shells, but _ perfected _ it. Minimus was oddly struck by this; whether that was because he had misclassified something for once in his life, or that someone had helpfully corrected his mistake, he did not know. Stranger still, he found he was smiling. In the midst of his wonderings, he didn’t even notice the long, shallow tracks from the place where his shells sat to the water.

Behind an outcropping off in the ocean, two glimmering red eyes caught a glimpse of that smile. The figure slid into the water, his two-chambered heart pounding in his chest as he swam away.


	3. An Unsafe Sailing Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minimus really needs to learn how to swim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's Day 7 of Minimegs Week! Thanks to everyone who participated!!!! 
> 
> Also! I'm still working on this fic and the next few weeks are going to be extremely busy for me, so I'm not sure when I'll post the next chapter. But don't worry! I promise on my life that I'll finish this fic!!

It was remarkably easy to rent a boat, something that rather concerned Minimus. Perhaps he needed to look into what licenses one needed to run such a business. The man he had rented one from – Pipes, his name had been – had been a bit to enthusiastic for Minimus’s tastes. He had told Minimus all about his quest to find the perfect boyfriend, despite the fact that Minimus had most definitely not asked… But at least that interaction was over now, and Minimus could enjoy the open ocean safely above water. Borrowing a dusty manual on how to operate a sailboat and reading it through the night, by the next morning Minimus was somewhat confident that he could go for a short sail out on the sea. 

It was a bright and windy day, and the sail of his boat –  _ The Lime _ – was swaying slightly even before it unfurled. Minimus had already inspected it for any safety violations, but had found not a screw out of place. He briefly considered changing his opinion of Pipes. Then he found the boat’s only life vest and saw it was two sizes too big for him. He decided not to.

Even though he was practically swimming in it, Minimus still wore the embarrassingly large vest and set off. Perhaps he wasn’t being cautious enough, but... “A life vest is a life vest, if I fall into the water I’ll still stay afloat. That’s all that matters.” 

He hadn’t expected to see much during this initial sail, but once he had reached the open sea, he was surprised by a flash of grey and a spray of water. Minimus rushed to the side of the boat and his eyes went wide. Dolphins! The porpoises were swimming alongside the bow, riding the waves made by the sailboat as it cruised through the water. For a long moment, he just watched, enraptured by their smooth movements. Then, he realized Nautica would kill him if he didn’t get pictures for her. 

“Damn, where did I…” Minimus quickly located the Nokia Nautica had left him, then peered back over the rope railing. “Wait, where-”

There was a bump from below the ship. Minimus jolted as it rocked underneath him, grabbing onto the railing. The boat rocked again, throwing off the sail and causing the entire ship to veer right. Minimus stumbled backwards. “The- the dolphins? Oh n-” 

And then, the Nokia slipped out of his hands. Minimus yelled, reaching out over the rope to grasp at it. The rowdy dolphins rammed against the side of the boat, making it tip just far enough for Minimus to lose his balance. With a crash, he fell into the water. 

It felt like forever before Minimus gained awareness again, though truly it was a matter of seconds. He could only hear a loud rushing sound that filled his ears and made him feel sick. When he tried to gasp and only gained a mouthful of salty water, he opened his eyes and ignored the sting to see he was quite clearly beneath the surface of the ocean he had just been sailing above seconds ago. He tried to swim upwards to no avail – something tugged him back down every time. Twisting his head around frantically, he spotted what was trying to drown him: one of the straps on his oversized life vest had come loose and was caught on the underside of the boat. Now, as the ship sailed forward, Minimus was helplessly being pulled along for the ride. Trying to yank the strap free was fruitless, as the current was too strong for his arms to reach back, nevermind the fact that he couldn’t breathe and his vision was starting to grow spotty. 

Minimus panicked, throwing out his arms and legs in a fit of fear and anger as he tried to escape. He couldn’t die here! He hadn’t finished the powerpoint guidelines for the company! How would they know which fonts and sizes to use? However, his anguish over typefaces was not enough to keep the air in his burning lungs. In a moment, he stopped thinking. 

* * *

Megatron was panicking. The human was in the water—could it swim? But they were being pulled by the- by the boat? Yes, by the boat, their arms and legs trailing behind them in the current. Did they need help? Could humans breathe in water? He had never seen gills on one, though perhaps they kept them hidden—he had never been close enough to see. 

Megatron watched anxiously as the human struggled with their vest, his tail lashing about in the sand. He wanted to help, but the human could- they would see him, then. Would it truly be worth it? They would likely just be alarmed at his sudden appearance and injure themselves further. That’s what humans usually did. He sank back slightly into the seaweed. 

Far above, the dark-haired human ceased its struggles. 

Megatron’s tail whipped up a cloud of sand as he pushed off the sea floor and rocketed up. He caught up with the human easily and felt a jolt of fear go through him when they did not react to him. Circling around him, he located what was connecting them to the boat: a rough, fibrous cloth that refused to come free. Glancing back to the limp, unresponsive human, Megatron bit down on the strap and shook his head violently. Suffice to say, his teeth were sharp enough to cleanly rip it apart. Once the human was free, he scooped them up in his arms—for a fleeting moment he thought on how warm they were—and then broke the surface with a splash. 

But the human still wasn’t moving. Megatron growled in frustration; at himself, at the human, or at those damn dolphins, he didn’t know. The shore was too far away, but he had to get them onto solid ground. 

Oh. The boat. 

The boat that was currently sailing away. 

Megatron resisted the urge to slap himself. Doing his best to keep the human above water, he caught up with the boat and dug his claws into the right end of it. The fiberglass screeched in protest but relented to his jagged grip. Though he found himself yanked forward a fair bit, Megatron was able to slow the boat down with a few strong strokes of his tail. Then with a heave, he pulled himself a bit over the ship’s edge and tossed the human into it. He winced at the loud  _ thump  _ they made. 

However, such an impact seemed to jolt the human out of their dazed state; they suddenly gasped for air as their limbs spasmed. Megatron hesitated to leave until they had managed to pull themselves up onto the opposite side in the boat and returned the seawater in their stomach back to the ocean. Megatron took this to mean they would be fine, and dropped himself back into the water with a small splash. As he swam away, he could not help but nurture the small spark of relief and happiness that kindled itself in his chest.

Minimus barely registered the odd rocking of the boat as he gulped down deep breaths. For a few minutes, all he felt was the stomach acid stinging at the back of his throat and the saltiness of the water drying out his mouth. Once he had regained enough composure to start thinking again, he looked up. Shockingly enough, he wasn’t too far from the stretch of beach where his cottage was settled. The boat had slowed down somehow, and now bobbed pleasantly upon the water. With shaky legs, Minimus stood up to adjust the sails so he could return home—and stopped when his life vest fell off. 

The strap on the back—the one that had caught on the underside of the boat and nearly killed him—was broken. No, not broken; ripped. It looked as if a piranha had taken a bite out of it, then torn the rest to shreds for good measure. Minimus stared at it for a moment before he felt dizzy. He would have to contemplate that later. Right now, he just needed a drink. 

* * *

Much, much later, after the moon curved an arc across the sky and the tide came in, Megatron poked his head out of the water. The lights inside the human’s house were off, and he found that his curiosity was pulling him forward onto the shore. Digging his claws into the sand, he heaved his tail out of the lapping waves and towards the dim cabin. He almost didn’t notice the blanket on the sand until one of his claws got tangled in it. 

Megatron froze. 

Sleeping quietly under the stars lay the human. Beside him lay porcelain circles that smelled of food; he must have eaten out here, then fallen asleep. Megatron couldn’t blame him, as it was a pleasantly warm night. The strong moonlight cast a pale shadow over his face, and Megatron – well, Megatron found it just a bit harder to breathe as he looked down upon him. For the first time (when he hadn’t been in mortal danger, that is), he was able to study the face of the human who had captured his attention from when he had first appeared on the beach. The creases of his face that Megatron had seen from afar had smoothed out, all tension and worry gone from his expression. He was unlike anything Megatron had ever seen. His skin was smooth and dry – how did he survive with the sun beating down on him all the time? Did he wear his cloth garments to keep warm, or to hide their sensitive skin? Why did he have hair on his face? Megatron kept leaning in closer, caught by the questions that fought for attention in his mind. 

Then, the human shifted. 

Megatron rocked back in alarm; he had almost turned about to flee before he noticed the human’s eyes weren’t open. The only thing that had changed was a stray lock of hair that had fallen over his face. His nose twitched. 

Megatron knew he should go. He knew it was dangerous to be so close, that the human could wake up at any moment. But he found that he could not help but tuck that lock of hair back behind his ear and gently caress the human’s cheek. It was just as he remembered: warm.

The human mumbled something Megatron couldn’t understand, though it sounded pleased, and then leaned into Megatron’s palm. Megatron felt his face heat. Faintly, he thought that he should be going back into the water now. Surely that was a sign that he was growing overheated. 

Oh, but how could he move now, when the beautiful human was breathing gently against his wrist? 

For an hour he stayed there. He watched helplessly as the human laid claim to most of his arm, hugging it tight while staying fast asleep. He hummed and murmured things, nuzzling into Megatron’s hand and making his heart feel funny.

Sadly, he eventually had to return to the water. As much as he didn’t want to, he carefully extricated his arm from the human’s grasp, and started to move back to the ocean. At the edge of the waves, he gazed back and wished he could lie there, next to his lovely human, forever. But he didn’t even know if the human would like him, much less allow him to hold his warm little body in his arms.

With what couldn’t even be called a splash, he slipped away into the dark water.

The next morning, when Minimus blinked awake, there was a cowrie shell resting on the blanket next to his head.


End file.
